ESSAY OVERVIEW

Overview for English 21 and English 28 essaysStudents should assume that your audience has already read the assigned reading material, so avoid summarizing. Instead, focus on writing an analysis and interpretation of the story. Student essays should allow the audience to understand and appreciate the meaning conveyed by the author’s story. Remember, essays should not consist of what happens in the story, but what the readership is supposed to get out of it.

All essays should contain the following:

An introduction and conclusion

A thesis statement

Relevant topic/closing sentences

Body paragraphs focused on one main idea each

A logical progression of ideas

Ideas developed and supported with specific details

A clear presentation of your ideas

Sentences free or almost free from

If these expectations sound intimidating; do not worry, just do the best that you can. Students will read a lot of information about strengthening reading and writing skills throughout the semester.

For English 28 students

Write an analysis and interpretation of the assigned reading that will help readers understand and appreciate the story.

When students work on an essay, a good early step is to:

* Identify three or four major ideas that can be developed in the essay, with one major idea being the focus of each body paragraph.

* Begin each body paragraph with a statement/argument about the subtopic.

*The rest of the paragraph, go into depth supporting.

*Developing that idea with specific evidence from the story

* Always include quotations.

Students will have at least two weeks to work on each graded essays, with plenty of time to plan, pre-write, write, revise, and proofread, major aspects of the writing process that are vital to writing a good paper. I am not looking for "Great American" literary masterpieces, but I will be looking for the basics: